I am doing a leisurely die study of Constantine's VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP from Siscia and just got a new example in today. It is RIC VII Siscia 56 and is an obverse die match for another example I have. I also have obverse die matches for RIC 82. The first pic is RIC 56, and the animation is RIC 82. If you are not familiar with VLPP's, I have some pages about them. http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/sis/
Hello Victor_Clark Always interesting to find die matches, and not easy to spot : congratulations Cucumbor
10 years later and I am still looking for die matches, but mainly unofficial Siscian VLPP's. I just won an auction for a lot that is a fifth die match to other examples that I have. 17mm 2.2gm 16mm 2.6gm 16x17mm 2.1gm 16x17mm2.1gm the latest one, bottom row to right- I also have the metallurgical analysis for the first two- "The average weight of the imitatives is about .2 grams smaller than the official coinage. The coins...metal content and the percentage of silver (usually around 2%) indicates that many were most likely made from the previously de-monetized issues" http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/barb2/ and an old .gif I made for the first two these "barb" die matches are fun for me, but they are not so useful numismatically.
Have you got one of these? This might be easy to track down a die match because, even though the inscriptions are gibberish, it has a clear SIS mint mark. Notice, too, the spear over the shoulder: 17 mm, 2.1 g.
Yes, I have a die match to that one 18x17mm 2.5gm and obverse match with close reverse 18x17mm 2.5gm another close one, maybe reworked legend 16mm 2.3 gm another similar 17x18mm 2.1gm another similar example 17mm2.2gm these coins are similar to an example found in a small hoard of 52 imitations found near Carnuntum, which included 37 VLPP imitations.
Fascinating. Victor, have you ever talked with Ron Bude? He's been doing some pretty sophisticated metallurgical analyses of VLPPs for a while now. He's got some interesting theories on the silver content of some of these coins and how it matters in the Licinian wars. He operates Roman Lode, though he says he's getting out of the retail business.
